Howard Porter designs new quad road train

Howard Porter has built a solid reputation in Western Australia’s mining industry for designing innovative trailing equipment. Now, the company is lifting its own benchmark with the release of a new quad road train for Qube’s Ports and Bulk division.

Built specifically for hauling iron ore and manganese minerals from the Pilbara region, WA’s key mining hub, Qube’s new quad road train has been more than nine months in the making and is the result of an ongoing alliance between Howard Porter and the State’s central road authority, Main Roads Western Australia.

“One of our main objectives as a business is to develop innovative equipment that can help grow the mining industry, bolster the businesses involved and help the government improve road safety; and those factors are what’s fuelled this latest project,” says Todd Emmert, Director of Qube Ports and Bulk, which operates the Utah Point bulk facility in Port Hedland. “We’re very excited to put this new combination into service and it will deliver higher safety performance and efficiency improvements across our operations.”

Howard Porter has designed the new quad-axle, quad road train under the Performance-Based Standards (PBS) guidelines. The combination includes four side tippers and stretches up to 60m long, almost half the length of an AFL football field. It can also carry up to 140 tonnes of payload, according to Roy Lombardi, Managing Director at Howard Porter. “We all agreed on the PBS design with the view of lifting productivity and safety for Qube, as well as reducing the amount of trucks and trailers we have on the road,” he says. “This combination is the first for the Pilbara region and could potentially open the door for more growth throughout the transport and mining industries.”

The full story has appeared in the October edition of Trailer. To get your copy, click here.